Delhi HC refuses to entertain plea on juvenility

New Delhi, Feb 20 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Wednesday refused to entertain a PIL seeking direction for all the district courts regarding the procedure to be adopted and records relied upon while determining the juvenility of an accused.

A division bench of Chief Justice D. Murugesan and Justice V.K. Jain refused to entertain the public interest litigation (PIL) saying the petitioner has not challenged the rules of the Juvenile Justice Act and it cannot issue such directions.

The bench, however, gave the liberty to the petitioner to withdraw it and approach the court with a fresh petition.

The PIL filed by advocate R.K. Tarun asked the bench that direction should be passed to all the trial courts on the procedure and records relied upon to maintain uniformity among all the trial courts.

The petition said that no two courts are uniform in determining the juvenility and even if two cases come up before the same trial court with the plea of juvenility, the procedure adopted by the court for determining the juvenility are different.

"There is no uniformity among the trial courts regarding the procedure to be adopted for determining the juvenility rather there is lot of confusion and contradiction among the trial courts while applying their judicial minds regarding the documents which is to be relied upon while determining the claim of juvenility," said the PIL.

It further added that in the recent Dec 16, 2012 gang-rape case, the Juvenile Justice Board at the time of determining the age of the accused relief upon a certificate provided by the government primary school in Badaun, without going into any enquiry for determining the juvenility, which is actually required by the law.

The plea asked: "Whether a certificate issued by a school regarding date of a person in absence of any contemporaneous record would be considered to be an authentic proof of the date of a person as per the juvenile justice Act, 2000 or not?"